Time in Athens

Greece adopted a standard time in 1916 and has used UTC+2 as its base since then, apart from the war years. The zone is centered on the 30th meridian east, while Athens sits at about 23.7°, so the clock runs some 25 minutes ahead of the sun. Solar noon falls near 12:23 PM in winter and 1:27 PM in summer, which helps explain Greek habits like dinner at 9:00 or 10:00 PM.

As an EU member, Greece changes clocks on the last Sundays of March and October, at 3:00 AM and 4:00 AM local time respectively, the same instant as Lisbon, London and Berlin. The islands, from Corfu to Rhodes and Crete, all keep Athens time.

Around the June solstice the sun rises near 6:02 AM and sets around 8:51 PM, about 14 hours 48 minutes of light. In late December the day lasts roughly 9 hours 32 minutes, from about 7:37 AM to 5:09 PM. Sunset at the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, an hour south of the city, is a classic summer outing for exactly that reason.

Office hours vary: many private firms work 9:00 to 17:00, while the public sector starts around 7:30 and finishes by 15:00, and some shops still close in the afternoon on certain weekdays. Athens is seven hours ahead of New York most of the year, so 9:00 AM in New York is 4:00 PM in Athens. In the weeks when North America and Europe have changed clocks on different weekends, the gap is six hours. The EET to EST page shows the full table, and the time zone converter handles any other city.